well i arrived in kelowna yesterday to a steak dinner with both parents and my brother -- something that's not happened in something like 5 years i think... it was pretty cool. now lets see where i left off....

in the couple days i spent living with jeanie & ruth, i managed to see a couple friends on the side... mostly while i drove around the rainy cities in my lame rental car. i hooked up with heather and her new son (yes, you read right, heather's a mommy and wife now!). the kid's adorable. well as adorable as any near hairless, up-spitting, drooling kid can be ;-) but seriously, he was really great. and relatively quiet too for a 3month old. we hung out at her sister's place for a while then went shopping with baby myles only to find what heather wanted and be thwarted by the baby's crying... apparently, he'd had enough shopping for one day.

the two of them are quite fascinating though. back in highschool, heather was more of the strong, silent type. i was going to use the word "cold" but that's not really appropriate for her. she was always rather rigid though, strong, but not what you'd expect a mommy to be like... well she's changed. now she's all cute and cuddly with the kid, talking babytalk with him, and o-so-very-patient. i guess this sort of thing is normal for a new parent, but it's just amazing to see it actually happen to one of your friends. myles is a lucky boy.

i picked up paula at her new place and went for vietnamese with liam while we talked linux and bored her to death. that's right, i ate pho. ...and i didn't hate it. didn't like it either, but it's considerably more tolerable than most other asian foods i've had lately. o! and point of interest for those who care: while we were in the little restaurant, they had the olympics on an overhead tv and i was amazed to hear that the american syncronised swimming team had selected "liberti fatali" as their theme music... a really impressive song from final fantasy viii. i just thought it was pretty damn cool that a theme song from a japanese videogame had made it into the olympics. and just you wait, wired magazine has a great article on the coming of anime to north america. unfortunately, i can't link to it 'cause they want you to buy the magazine.... o well.

after i'd chewed up enough of jeanie and ruth's time and hugs had been passed all around, i packed all of my stuff into the rental, dropped it off at my grandparents and drove paula into vancouver where i was promptly lost for about half an hour while looking for a gas station. after i dropped it off, matt met me at his hotel and we went back to his place in new west where we watched a movie and i checked out his new place... really nice for the price he's paying... and with a view too. i'll have pictures once i get home and can photoshop them properly.

annie picked me up from there and we had an afternoon of errands and chocolate. she told me about all the boys chasing after her, and filled her in on my colourful past few months. it's always nice to talk with her -- she's one of those friends that you don't have to talk to all the time to preserve the friendship, you just pick up where you left off...

almost done here, i swear.

i grabbed some time with chris, michelle and richard heck a couple days ago while i was stranded at the grandparent's place. we went out for beer at the murrayville pub and talked about all manner of things. michelle looks GREAT. she's lost weight and with it some of the emotional weight she seemed to be carrying at the same time. she's happy, energetic and a pleasure to be around. i'm really glad i found time to see her this trip. rick is frustrated with work but always funny about it and apparently has earned a reputation with chris and friends for being quite the impressive drinker ;-) his jokes mixed with chris' oddness and michelle's outrageousness (i still have that bruise!) and we all had a great night.

my grandparents are always nice to be around, but trying at times as well. they're both racists and homophobes, so it makes conversation difficult. my grandfather has the tendency to like to start arguments for the joy of pushing other people's buttons, so while it doesn't often work with me, it still makes having a civil conversation tough. nonetheless, they really are great people (and fantastic cooks) and i love being around them... their being here is one of the things that makes living in toronto so hard...

oo! ok, last bit

jamie buhler & dave hall are now "dave and jamie hall". or is it "jamie and dave hall"? i'm not sure on that one. anyway, i got to go to the wedding, which was quite the treat for a number of reasons. some old aquiantences attended, like my old music teacher mr. thompson and shanwa's friend serena, as well as michelle and shawna. i got to dress up all pretty like and remind myself of yet another reason i left langley... at a wedding in a suit and tie, i appeared to be overdressed. people showed up in tshirts, jeans and flip-flops.... to a wedding! i dunno, maybe the problem is that i was just raised by elitist montrealers, but that just doesn't seem right.

the wedding itself was nice though. mr. t. played the trumpet, serena sang and the pastor talked about god, and jesus, and god, and the covenant, and jesus and commitment... o yeah, and jamie & dave. the couple were very cute though. dave doted on her, while the buhler family (outnumbering the hall fam 4:1) picked at him and warned him of jamie's multiple personalities when it came to her hair and her disasterous cooking skills. the wedding had no alcohol or dancing though, so when the happy couple drove off to have their very first shag, the rest of us got into a convoy of cars to get some beer into the group and maybe some dancing... i ended up driving most of the people in my car home ;-)

anyway, i've got more stuff to do up here (in armstrong at the moment) so i gotta go. i'll try to post pictures as soon as i can. ttfn

so yeah, my company didn't pay for the trip out -- but it sorta works out good this way 'cause it gives me more time to see everyone down here. highlights from the trip:

chris rhodes & amy picked me up from the airport and after a brief stay at his place, we went to a kiddy party (ie, no one over 24) where there was women's oil wrestling (yes you read right). amy and two other girls doused themselves in baby oil and rolled around on a tarp in the rain for about 20min while an audience of about 80% males looked on cheering. not a shining moment for feminism, but everyone had fun and it's definitely worth mentioning here ;-)

chris' place is huge and remarkably neat considering what i'd expected. he's living healthier and the two of them pull down enough money that they can live comfortably while he goes to school. the two of them are so very cute together and she doesn't take any shit from him, so things appear to be working out nicely.

i saw noreen for a short time during the day, along with quinn and anna. we talked about a variety of typically taboo subjects, and i got some really great pictures of the lot of them. sadly though, i can't post any of them here 'cause jeanie's usb ports are practically inaccessible for my cf reader. maybe when i'm up in kelowna i can work some mojo w/ the parent's computers.

matt's hotel is nice, but nicer still is what he's made of himself. he's become a mature adult working a fulltime job at a respectable hotel. he stads straight, looks you in the eye and has a mature and intelligent attitude. quite the step forward from the butthead i knew. his girlfriend is both gorgeous and bright, articulate and friendly. lucky bastard ;-)

shawna and i blew some time in vancouver and had a nice expensive dinner on grandville island. like the first real date i've had in what feels like a very long time. we also had some food in kits with audrey, who's just as pretty as i remember her, just now she has dreadlocks ;-).

i'm staying with jeanie & ruth now for a couple days before i move on to my grandparent's place in delta. we watched under the tuscan sun last night and then i had good long talk with ruth before calling matt and waking him up @2am (sorry butt). ruth, like any mother had a few things to say that half made sense and half bothered me... i'm not sure what i'm going to do about it yet, but i hope i will soon.

two good movies worth seeing (for those who share my taste in flickage):

under the tuscan sun is a great flick for those who have an honest belief in the conciousness of the universe and it's twisted sense of humour when it comes to fate. apparently based on a true story, it's a touchy-feely chick-flick that leaves you with a considerable boost in your faith in the universe to put you in the right place at the right time. it's on dvd now, so you can pick it up at your local independent video store ;-) (don't go to blockbuster -- they're evil)

going the distance is another Canadian film that doesn't suck. if you're Canadian, you should see this movie since you're likely to catch a lot of the humour others may not. and if that doesn't make you wanna see it, then think about this. it's about a road trip across the entire country... and Canada is beautiful. the story's funny, the scenery fantastic, and avril lavine and swollen members have cameos in it. just go see it so as quinn says, you can "support Canadian cinema".

this is pretty damn funny.

whenever you're stressing over anything. money, job, women... whatever, there's one really excellent way to just make it all seem to disappear:

lose your credit card

i was running short on time left before i go back to vancouver and was racing all over town doing errands while stressing over my non-existent love life when i found myself at the pet shop returning the kitty carrier syntax never used. the nice man at the till asked me if i wanted to put the refund on my credit card and that's when i realised it: it was missing.

where the hell did it go? i mean, it's not like my whole wallet was missing, just the card. i started retracing my steps, where was i today? did i buy anything with it recently? what if it really is gone? who do i call to cancel it? how can i cancel it when i'm going on vacation in a few days? ...girl trouble just can't stand up to this kind of panic.

i remembered that i'd gone to "eggstacy" with sheena only the night before... could that have been where i left it? what was their number? was that really their name? on my way to emily-jane's to drop off a cd, i called 411 and asked for "egg-something on church street". the guy on the other end was very cool and understanding and gave me the right place on the first try. the friendly computer voice patched me through to the restaurant and a pretty girl's voice met my panicked one over the line as she informed me that they did indeed have my card -- she'd hold it for me 'till i showed up.

i was at emily jane's for about 1minute then hurried down to the restaurant where i was met with a girl with great hair holding my o-so-precious chuck of plastic. needless to say, she got a nice tip for the glass of iced tea i had. i'll have to go back there soon... she did have nice hair after all ;-)

so for future reference for the organisationally-handicapped: take down all that important information about your credit card (like who to call to cancel it and the number to cancel it with) and put it somewhere safe... somewhere safe not your wallet. so in the event that you're less fortunate than me, you'll be able to do something about it in a timely fashion.

i started watching another anime last night. i've been collecting chrno crusade episodes ever since i saw a fragment of one a few months ago. if you're interested, the best way i can explain it would have to be "kinda like power rangers meets akira meets sailor moon". it's violent, artistic and at times too silly for me. but it's not bad and i do have all 24episodes now. i might as well watch the whole thing and see where it's going. i'll post here when it's all over.

i found this in my travels today. i don't know who the original author is, but it's inspired me to create something fun for my own sites. remember turn your speakers on.

apparently, a group calling itself the parents television council has taken it upon itself to file a complaint against buffy the vampire slayer with the fcc over the episode in which buffy fucked (there's no better word for what exactly happened) spike in season 6 (i think it was season 6, jeanie, correct me if i'm wrong). anyway, the fcc has since rejected the claim, but it gave me a reason to check out their site. they have a top10 list of best & worst shows on tv and you might be surprised at what tops the list: #1 worst: everwood??? wtf? anyway, it's an entertaining read if you feel like shaking your head in disbelief for a while.

courtesy of angela:


actually, angela did another quiz by the same person for which actress you are, but i didn't feel that questions like "your look is blonde and beautiful" are entirely appropriate for my cary grant style ;-)

for a visit anyway. i'll post the details here sometime soon (behind a login for obvious reasons) but i thought i'd let you know ahead of time that i'm coming home to visit for a short time. i'll have some time in vancouver as well as kelowna so i can show up at jamie's wedding as well as my grandmother's familiy portrait. hopefully i'll get to see all of you, but given the time i've got, it's not very likely. i will however make an earnest effort.